An American Perspective: Establishing Justice

Chapter 3- Courts

§1. Establishing Justice

In order to enforce and administer justice throughout the realm and jurisdiction of the kingdoms and legislators, courts were attended to. They were to be administered by judges or magistrates, bailiffs, sheriffs, clerks and other administrative officers, and were to be the mirror image of the king and the existing laws of the land.

Judge- An officer so named in his commission, who presides in some court; a public officer, appointed to preside and to administer the law in a court of justice; the chief member of a court, and charged with the control of proceeding and the decision of questions of law or discretion.184

Magistrate- The term in its generic sense refers to a person clothed with power as a public civil officer, or a public civil officer invested with executive or judicial power.185
“In a general sense, a “magistrate” is a public officer, possessing such power, legislative, executive, or judicial, as government appointing him may ordain, although in a narrow sense he is regarded as an inferior judicial officer.”186
The term ‘judge’ can be used interchangeably with justice or court, and they can be deemed as a clerk of the court. While all judges can be considered as magistrates, not all magistrates are judges.
“The word “magistrate” does not necessarily imply an officer exercising any judicial functions, and might very well be held to embrace notaries and commissioners of deeds.”187

For instance, in the structure of a common law court of record, the magistrate is independent of the tribunal, and the act of adjudication, or ‘judging’ of the law and facts, lies either in the sovereign (plaintiff) independently, or in a fully empowered jury (not paid by the governmental agencies).

Adjudge- To pass on judicially, to decide, settle, or decree, or to sentence or condemn. Judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction; equivalent of a court of competent jurisdiction; equivalent of convicted and sentenced. Implies a judicial determination of a fact, and the entry of a judgment.188
Adjudicate- To settle in the exercise of judicial authority. To determine finally. Synonymous with adjudge in its strictest sense.189
Adjudication- The formal giving or pronouncing a judgment or decree in a cause; also the judgment given. The entry of a decree by a court in respect to the parties in a case. It implies a hearing by a court, after notice, of legal evidence on the factual issue(s) involved. The equivalent of a “determination.” Contemplates that the claims of all the parties thereto have been considered and set at rest.190
Adjudicatory Process- Method of adjudicating factual disputes; used generally in reference to administrative proceedings in contrast to judicial proceedings.191

Bailiff- A court officer or attendant who has charge of a court session in the matter of keeping order, custody of the jury, and custody of prisoners while in the court. One to whom some authority, care, guardianship, or jurisdiction is delivered, committed, or intrusted. One who is deputed or appointed to take charge of another’s affairs; an overseer or superintendent; a keeper, protector, or guardian; a steward. A person acting in a ministerial capacity who has by delivery the custody and administration of lands or goods for the benefit of the owner or bailor, and is liable to render an account thereof.
Special bailiff- A deputy sheriff, appointed at the request of a party to a suit, for the special purpose of serving or executing some writ or process in such suit.
Bailiff-errant- A bailiff’s deputy.192

Sheriff- The chief executive and administrative officer of a county, being chosen by popular election. His principal duties are in aid of the criminal courts and civil courts of record; such as serving process, summoning juries, executing judgments, holding judicial sales and the like. He is also the chief conservator of the peace within his territorial jurisdiction. When used in statutes, the term may include a deputy sheriff. He is in general charge of the county jail in most states.193

Clerk- Officer of court who files pleadings, motions, judgments, etc. issues process, and keeps records of court proceedings.
Person employed in public office whose duties include keeping records or accounts.194

Record- The proceedings of the courts of common law are records. But every minute made by a clerk of a court for his own guidance in making up his record is not a record.195

“Minutes are not considered as any part of the record.”196

Court- “An agency of the sovereign created by it directly or indirectly under its authority, consisting of one or more officers, established and maintained for the purpose of hearing and determining issues of law and fact regarding legal rights and alleged violations thereof, and of applying the sanctions of the law, authorized to exercise its powers in the course of law at times and places previously determined by lawful authority.”197

Court- The person and suit of the sovereign; the place where the sovereign sojourns with his legal retinue, wherever that may be.198

Suit- The witnesses or followers of the plaintiff.199

“A generic term, of comprehensive signification, and applies to any proceeding by one person or persons against another or others in a court of justice in which the plaintiff pursues, in such court, the remedy which the law affords him for the redress of an injury or the enforcement of a right, whether at law or in equity.200

SUIT vs. SUITE201

The last half-way decent law dictionary is Black's Law Dictionary, Revised Fourth
Edition. I use it and older dictionaries to look up the law. Black's Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition and later, is more oriented toward policy. It is somewhat short regarding common law.

In the Revised Fourth Edition, definitions run thus:
Court - International Law. The person and suite of the sovereign; ...
Suite - Those persons who by his authority follow or attend an ambassador or other public minister.
Suit - Old English Law. The witnesses or followers of the plaintiff.
Modern Law- A generic term...the enforcement of a right, whether at law or in equity... sometimes restricted to the designation of a proceeding in equity to distinguish such proceeding from an action at law.
Follow - To conform to, comply with, or be fixed or determined by...
File - A record of the court. A thread, string, or wire upon which writs and other exhibits in courts and offices are fastened or filed for the more safe- keeping and ready turning to the same.

In the Fifth Edition (1979), definitions run thus:
Court - The person and suit of the sovereign; ...
Suite - Those persons who by his authority follow or attend an ambassador or other public minister.
Suit - A generic term...the enforcement of a right, whether at law or in equity... sometimes restricted to the designation of a proceeding in equity to distinguish such proceeding from an action at law.

Old English Law - The witnesses or followers of the plaintiff.
Follow - To conform to, comply with, or be fixed or determined by... To seek to obtain; to accept as authority.
File - A record of the court.

In olden days the king's castle court consisted of the king and his suite of courtiers. Because only the priests could write, the court record was in the memories of the King and his suite of courtiers. Later, the courtiers and their memories morphed into sheets of paper placed in a bag, which the clerk hung on a file in a closet. Sometime between the Fourth and Fifth Editions of Black’s Law Dictionaries, the spellings and meanings of the words were slightly modified in favor of statutory policy.

[184 Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, pg.754 (1979)
185 Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, pg. 857 (1979)
186 Shadwick v. City of Tampa, Fla., 250 So.2d 4,5 (1972)
187 Schultz v. Merchants’ Ins. Co., 57 Mo. 336 (1874)
188 Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, pg. 39 (1979)
189 U. S. v. Irvin, 127 U.S. 125, 8 S.Ct. 1033, 32 L.Ed. 99 (1996)
190 Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, pg. 39 (1979)
191 Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, pg. 40 (1979)
192 Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, pg. 129 (1979)
193 Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, pg. 1234 (1979)
194 Black’sLaw Dictionary, 5th Edition, pg. 229 (1979)
195 4 Wash. C. C. 698. See 10 Penn. St. 157; 2 Pick. Mass. 448; 4 N. II. 450; 6 id. 567; 5 Ohio St. 545; 3 Wend. N.Y. 267; 2 Vt. 573; 6 id. 580; 5 Day, Conn. 363; 3 T. B. Monr. Ky. 63
196 1 Ohio, 268. See 23 Pick. Mass. 184; Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, 14th Edition – (1870)
197 Isbill v. Stovall, Tex.Civ.App., 92 S.W.2d 1067, 1070, Tex. Civ. App.—Eastland, no writ. (1936)
198 Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, pg. 425 (1979)
199 3 Blackstone’s Commentaries 295. See Secta;
200 See, Kohl v. U.S., 91 U.S. 375, 23 L. Ed. 449; Weston v. Charleston, 2 Pet. 464, 7 L. Ed. 481; Syracuse Plaster Co. v. Agostini Bros. Bldg. Corporation, 169 Misc. 564 7 N. Y. S. 2d 897
201 Bill Thornton, The Nitty Gritty Law School, 1215.org]